by Arienne Thompson, USA TODAY

by Arienne Thompson, USA TODAY

Designer Pamella Roland sort of stumbled upon the inspiration for her Fall 2013 collection, which drew from the opulence of St. Petersburg, Russia.

"I was over there with my husband, and we had thought about doing another inspiration, (but) I called my design team, I go, 'No! I found our inspiration!'" she revealed backstage before the show. "We went through the palaces there, and so you'll see a lot of royal colors here: blues and plums, and, of course, gold."

And she played around with combinations by pairing tough elements like leather with more feminine ones like chiffon satin.

"You'll see a little bit of the traditional and the modern; I do that often. I like putting that together."

Roland says she still finds Fashion Week exciting, despite the fact that "the show is so quick and you put all this time and months into it, and it goes like that."

Since launching her line more than a decade ago, Roland has dressed plenty of stars, including Halle Berry, Alicia Keys, Kelly Clarkson and Julianna Hough. But Roland says her best pinch-me moment happened years ago.

"The biggest one was Sex and the City in its last year, when Kim Cattrall came walking out and she was up for an Emmy and we just had our show two days before that," she remembered. "We shipped it overnight, she put it on, walked the carpet and we were screaming. That's always exciting."